I don't like this. I rock my Red 920 caseless because Nokia built the chassis strong enough to not need a case. It is heavier than other naked phones. I bought this off-contract, but plan to get 2 years out of it at least. I don't want to drop $450 on something fragile that's supposed to last 2+ years. Hope this is unfounded.

You like your 920, why would a new phone bother you? They'll probably still offer a polycarbonate model for those who prefer that.

A new phone wouldn't bother me. What bothers me is that Nokia is giving in to the "it's too heavy" crowd that wants their technology to be light, but fragile and scratch-prone. I like Nokia's history of making disaster-proof phones. The moment they make a phone that doesn't stand up to their history, the reputation shatters.

I wouldn't jump to conclusions that it won't be as sturdy as the polycarbonate. I don't think they would release a phone that is below their standards for wear and tear; perhaps they have something creative up their sleeves.

I don't know why people are assuming that aluminum will some how be more fragile than polycarbonate. The N8 was an extremely well built phone which had an aluminum unibody, and it felt just as sturdy as polycarbonate Lumias do. Nokia has experience with aluminum so I don't think people should worry about durability or signal quality.

I find that coloured aluminum also looks more high end than coloured polycarbonate does.

I don't know why people are assuming that aluminum will some how be more fragile than polycarbonate. The N8 was an extremely well built phone which had an aluminum unibody, and it felt just as sturdy as polycarbonate Lumias do. Nokia has experience with aluminum so I don't think people should worry about durability or signal quality.

I find that coloured aluminum also looks more high end than coloured polycarbonate does.

Aye and something that people here might not know is that the color on those old Nokia aluminiun unibodies (N8, E7, etc) had the colors throughout the material.
There's not many companies out there for me who excite me as much as Nokia does when it comes to them changing to another design principal.

I take exception to the implication that an aluminum body (rather than polycarbonate) will allow for a substantially lighter phone.

We know that much of the bulk of the 920 is due to its camera, and secondarily due to the inductive charging coil. It certainly would be possible to make a lighter phone by removing these two features. And in fact, an aluminum back plate will prohibit inductive charging (its the Faraday box concept).

That said, if Nokia feels a slimmer, lighter phone is needed, that is fine. But it won't truly be a successor to the 920.

I just got a 920 and my one complaint right now is that it is heavy. Not heavy that I can't pick it up or talk with it, but it flaps around my jacket pocket. If they can make it closer to the 8X's weight, I'd go for that. I got the 920 for the charge pad and offline maps which the AT&T 8X doesn't have. The one thing I didn't like about the article is that the 920 successor as they put it, has similar internals. By the end of 2013, many phones will using ARM A15's so the Snapdragon S4 will be old news. Hopefully the article isn't implying it will have 2012's processor and GPU in late 2013.

It would not be impossible to make a ceramic body, just very expensive.

Anodization of aluminum is basically the growth of aluminum oxide on the surface. Al2O3 is quite hard on its own, but its ability to resist wear depends on how dense and thick it is grown. As you might expect, the best treatments take more time and tighter process control. I think it is HILARIOUS that Apple explained away their back cover issues, when to me it looks like a classic shoddy anodize job.

Anyway, you can make extremely durable "hard" anodize coatings that are very dense and leave a (beautiful to me) matte grey. This is the finish they use on quality cookware. It is much more time consuming. There is no question in my mind that this should be the material they use on either the next flagship lumia or the ms surface phone.

Aye and something that people here might not know is that the color on those old Nokia aluminiun unibodies (N8, E7, etc) had the colors throughout the material.
There's not many companies out there for me who excite me as much as Nokia does when it comes to them changing to another design principal.

Any anodize dye job should penetrate the entire oxide layer and be promptly sealed. If you see white or silver through a scratch, it likely means it was a thin anodize job and was scratched to bare metal.